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Back on Form: Best expected to play again this season

7 January 2010 18:20pm

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Rory Best back in full training and putting in the effort

Ulster hooker and Club Captain Rory Best, will make a sooner than expected return to the pitch...

The 27-year-old had just returned from captaining the National side during the successful tour of North America when he was hit with the hammer blow of his injury. Essentially, Rory suffered a disc prolapse, which was significant enough for him to have the disc removed and the neck stabilised with a bone graft from his hip. While the operation carried out in August is fairly common, as with everything there were no guarantees and it was initially projected that Rory would be out for the full season.

Having been told over six months ago that he would probably have to miss this season, the Ulster skipper has made massive strides in his rehabilitation programme. Five months on, and after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, Rory is now in the fast lane to achieving the goal of playing rugby again.

Yesterday at Newforge, Rory underwent another check from National physiotherapist, Brian Green, and the signs were all good, and indicated that he could be pulling on the Ulster jersey just after the Six Nations campaign. Last week Rory trained with the rest of the squad on the pitch, taking contact and hits, and the news that he is ready to return to playing sooner rather than later has given him and the rest of the squad, a boost at the start of a new year.

"The bit of contact was good, I took some hits. I got suited up in the vest, and although there were some concerns from the coaching team, the medical team said it had to be done at some point.

"It was only five or ten minutes, but it was good to take hits full on, boys running at you trying to knock you over, which is great."

Rory admitted that it was not easy at times, but he was certainly in a better place now than he was when first discovering the injury was there. "Those were dark days," he said. "But once I got into the rehab and began to see some light at the end of the tunnel, things were not so bad."

"But it was not just hard work and effort from me. Our head strength and conditioning coach, Jonny Davis, has also put some big hours in with me too - and you have to remember he has everyone else to look after as well.

"And there were days when everyone else was off when he and myself were in the gym working for a few hours."

Rory gets a four week review with consultant, Niall Eames, who performed the surgery.

"If Niall is happy with how things are going after the end of each four week period, then we can move on to the next process. But if he is not happy, then we just take our time and work through his guidelines" said Rory.

Rory acknowledges that the spur of getting back on the rugby pitch kept him focused and the fact that he was still the club captain, albeit off the field, was important to him.

"It was good at that time for David Humphreys and Brian McLaughlin to decide to stick with me as captain. It was a real lift for me, particularly at a stage when it was a dark time for me at the start of the season. It was important to me and it meant I have been in and around the squad.

"The great thing is knowing I have to come back being even better than I was pre injury."